The ILA – Can You Help?

We are currently looking for some new people to join the ILA Committee.  It’s a great way to be involved in the Association, meet colleagues and discuss matters of interest and importance to the sector.  If you can spare a few hours every couple of months to join a Zoom meeting or attend in person for meetings and events this is a rewarding and enjoyable commitment. Currently we are seeking people to help with:

Social Media and Promotion - we want to shout about the world of the ILA and what our great members are doing.

Events – help us shape the event plan for the future – whether it be an annual gathering, regional events, training sessions,  be involved in the nuts and bolts of venues, speakers and bookings and see some of our amazing libraries as you take part yourself.

Honorary Secretary – deals with correspondence and applications for membership, convenes Committee meetings, circulates agendas, writes and circulates minutes. Compiles Annual Report in conjunction with committee colleagues and member libraries. Compiles and circulates AGM paperwork.

If you are interested in helping the Association more generally, we would also be keen to hear from you.

Please contact Matthew Brooke, co-chair of the ILA, to find out more about how you can get involved. matthew.brooke@londonlibrary.co.uk

Annual Conference 2022: ‘New’ books leading to new readers (Louisa Yates, Gladstone’s Library, Wales, UK)

Click here for the PowerPoint presentation (PDF)

For many years Gladstone’s Library (then named St Deiniol’s) served a very particular community. The average user was a clergyman from anywhere in the world, who had often become acquainted with ‘St D’s’ during his training. The collections were understood to be theological; William Ewart Gladstone, a devout Christian, was understood to have valued theology above all other subjects and to have founded his library for the pursuit of ‘divine learning’. Above all, it was a library, holding only printed books.

Now, however, clergy form perhaps only one third of the Gladstone’s Library demographic. Writers of all kinds, poets, students, researchers, academics, freelance workers, curious readers and more make up the rest. Materially, our collections have changed only a little, and our spaces even less. What has changed entirely is our understanding  of the collections at Gladstone’s Library, and in turn the public’s understanding of what is available to them. This talk explores some of the research and work that has contributed to that change.

Louisa Yates is a writer and academic who works as both Director of Collections and Research at Gladstone’s Library and as a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Chester. In her role at Gladstone’s she heads the team who run the Reading Rooms, open to all and home to one of the world’s great nineteenth-century collections. Louisa writes and teaches on women’s writing, neo-Victorian literature and Victorian material culture, and she’s one of the Festival Directors of Gladfest, hailed in the Huffington Post as a ‘great small literary festival’. In 2022 she’s working with the Gladstone’s team as they recover from the Covid-19 pandemic.

This is one of the nine presentations at the ILA’s annual conference in 2022, at the Birmingham and Midland Institute. Please click here for details of that conference and for details of forthcoming events.

Archives in Your Library

3pm Monday 14th November 2022

‘We don’t have any archives, we’re a library!’ we hear you cry. But every library has some form of archive, be that your borrowing and membership records, your social media, or those correspondence files. Join this session to get some idea of where you might begin.

Led by Alexandra Foulds, Archivist at Gladstone’s Library

To register for this Zoom session, please click here:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMkc-ysqDsoGtN0JtIfIiSHUqRcxLd_jlRU

Please email queries to events@independentlibraries.co.uk

Cataloguing as an Independent Library

3pm, Wednesday 5th October

The first of a series of meetings that will lead to the ILA understanding more about its member libraries’ collections, and in particular their catalogued status. Even if cataloguing your collections is a far-off dream, we want to hear from you!

Led by Isobel Goodman, Librarian at Gladstone’s Library

To register for this Zoom session, please click here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUqc-CtrjMoH9wjEaWYxBRnjUE0KeYhRsLa

Please email any enquiries to events@independentlibraries.co.uk

ILA LitFest!

12pm, Tuesday 12th July 2022

To raise awareness of the successful events programme run by many independent libraries, plans are afoot for an ILA LitFest later this year. Participation is simple; you just need to schedule an event in the designated period, and we’ll support you with branding and promotion. Come and join Carl Hutton (The Leeds Library) to find out more.

To register, please click here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0of-mqqDIjE9aZwV37jvUcyFbq1bfn2NkY

Please email any queries to events@independentlibraries.co.uk

Tues 31 May, 3pm: Annual Conference follow-up

A chance to gather again after the annual conference. Didn’t manage to attend? Got something you didn’t manage to ask? Want to report on any partnerships you made at the conference? Come along!

There will be a fifteen-minute conference update followed by a chance to chat.

Please use this link to register: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZIvcOirrTkpGdw3S_nSiHywDwZQUwaVvqUw

If there are any issues, please email events@independentlibraries.co.uk

ILA Connect - 2022 programm

A stained glass window with the words 'ILA Connect: New Events in 2022'

Come along to chat and learn from other libraries

In recent years the ILA members realised just how nice it is to get together every now and again, with a series of online Town Hall meetings where we shared our news.

In 2022 we’re taking that forward with a series of informal, relaxed online events that support the in-person networking at the Annual Conference.

Each will be themed and led by an ILA member library. After a short talk there’ll be plenty of time to share what your library does and ask questions too.

The programme for the rest of 2022 is (click for details, including Zoom sign-up):

Tues 31 May, 3pm: Annual Conference follow-up

Tues 12th July, 12pm: ILA LitFest!

Wed 5th October, 3pm:  Cataloguing as an Indie Library

Fri 28th October, 10am: Town Hall Meeting

Mon 14th November, 3pm:  Archives in Your Library 

2022 Annual Conference - Birmingham and Midland Institute

Conference theme for 2022: Spreading the word about the independent library

Spreading the word is perhaps what independent libraries do best! From formal outreach programmes to writing postcards to our members, we all love to shout about what we do. The Birmingham and Midland Institute’s very existence is based on spreading the word. As its original statute clearly states, the BMI exists for the ‘diffusion and advancement of Science, Literature and Art, among all persons…’

2021’s conference was all about the independent library as the Great Good Place – as space where commerce is optional and the focus is on connection. This year we’ll be developing that theme, exploring how independent libraries grow and develop their membership, show off their collections, use digital technology to enable global conversations, and more.

In 2022 we had keynotes from Guy Rippon, Head of Foundation and Community Partnerships at Aston Villa Football Club, and Professor Mark Towsey from the University of Liverpool. Both talks emphasised the benefits of partnership, whether that comes through social and community networks or the UK’s academic research councils.

And of course we had our usual wonderful array of talks from member libraries around the world.

Download the full programme by clicking here.

About the host library: The Birmingham and Midland Institute offers a quiet haven in the centre of Birmingham. The Birmingham & Midland Institute has been at the heart of Birmingham’s cultural life for almost 170 years. It was founded by Act of Parliament in 1854 for the ‘Diffusion and Advancement of Science, Literature and Art amongst all Classes of Persons resident in Birmingham and Midland Counties’. Charles Dickens was one of its early Presidents.

During the late nineteenth century, the BMI played a leading role in the introduction of scientific and technical education in Birmingham until the state gradually took over its functions. It was thus the forerunner of many educational bodies such as the Birmingham Conservatoire.

Located in a Grade II* listed building, the BMI has a thriving programme of cultural and educational activities, which includes a wide spectrum of arts and science lectures, exhibitions and concerts. The building is also a venue for many externally-organised events and can be booked for conferences and meetings. The Institute also owns and runs the BMI Library, which can trace its roots back to the original Birmingham Library, founded in 1779.

The BMI has longstanding associations with a number of independent societies who use the premises for their activities and meetings. Affiliated societies have kindred interests and include the Birmingham Civic Society, Birmingham and Warwickshire Archaeological Society and Midland Ancestors.

Follow the BMI on Twitter!

Discover more about the BMI on their YouTube channel!

Town Hall Meeting (on Zoom) - Wednesday 27th April 2022, 11am

We’re very pleased to say that another of our very successful Town Hall meetings has been scheduled for 11am on Wednesday 27th April 2022. As with previous meetings, the aim is for us all to catch up with one another after what has surely been (and remains) one of the busiest periods in independent library history. There will be a chance to share your news as well as ask questions of other library professionals.

Although there will be a chance to ask advice from other libraries we’ll be emphasising the positive and we want to hear what’s been working well for you all!

As with previous meetings, anyone and everyone is welcome. Please share the news with anyone who might find this useful.

To register, please email events@independentlibraries.co.uk

general enquiries: info@independentlibraries.co.uk